Down to the Wire: UN Vote Looms [UPDATED: Will Vote Be Delayed?]

In the coming days, we will have UN speeches by Israeli PM Netanyahu, Iran's Ahmadinejad, the UN Security Council vote, planned demonstrations in Israel which will most likely turn into riots, and a UN General Assembly vote. The end of this week should be interesting.

With that in mind we see the following articles for perspective:

How Will the Security Council Members Vote?

It's the political horse race of the hour: How will the 15 members of the UN Security Council vote on the Palestinian Authority's request that the UN recognize the Arab state it intends to declare in Judea, Samaria, and Jerusalem?

With the PA's decision to take its bid directly to the Security Council, speculation about how the member countries will vote has become the main focus of intense diplomatic efforts this week.

Over the past few days, those still undecided among the 15 Security Council member states have been making their final decisions on how to vote.

Definite yesses for the PA bid include China, India, Lebanon, Russia, and South Africa. The PA also claims that Brazil and Portugal will approve the bid, giving them seven votes so far.

Joining the U.S. against are Germany and Colombia, reports in the U.S. said, although local media in Bogota said that the best Colombia could do would be to abstain.

Of the others, France, Serbia, Nigeria, Bosnia and Herzegovina still have not made a final decision.

Palestinian officials call for mass rallies for UN bid

PA and Fatah officials have called for "mass demonstrations and rallies" in the West Bank and east Jerusalem on Wednesday and Friday in solidarity with PA President Mahmoud Abbas's statehood bid.

The officials, on the other hand, expressed fear over what they described as an upsurge in settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank in recent days.

Netanyahu: It's important that we tell 'our truth' at UN

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu spoke at a pre-holiday gathering for Likud members on Tuesday evening, before his scheduled trip to New York to speak at the United Nations General Assembly.

"I am going tonight to New York to speak at the UN and meet with [US President Barack] Obama," he said. "Our region is going through a big shock and we have to maintain what is ours while dealing with the challenges from the region."

"It's important to go there and tell our truth as a people who want peace and have been attacked so many times," Netanyahu continued.

Netanyahu's comments come after Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riad al-Malki responded to Israeli calls for an immediate resumption of peace talks, saying that Israel must accept the PA's list of terms before negotiations can restart.

This week will be very interesting in terms of prophecy watching. Stay tuned.

UPDATE:

Report: UN vote on Palestinian statehood might be delayed for weeks

This report (rumors?) comes from Haaretz:

The upcoming United Nations votes on a Palestinian state are expected to be postponed to an unspecified date, sources in New York said Tuesday.

Postponements are expected for both the UN General Assembly vote on the declaration of an independent Palestinian state, as well as the UN Security Council vote on full Palestinian membership, the sources said.

While media sources are preoccupied with whether the United States will succeed in its attempts to secure a majority of opposing votes to decline the Palestinians' bid for statehood, sources say a "silent agreement" exists between Western powers to act to postpone the vote at the Security Council.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe hinted at the apparent vote postponement.

In an interview with 'Europe 1' radio on Tuesday, Juppe said that "diplomats are still hoping to prevent a crisis. It doesn't appear that a vote (on a declaration of Palestinian independence) will happen this Friday and that is in order to allow time for diplomacy to renew peace talks."

Juppe's comments are in accordance with estimates among sources involved with the U.S.-led and western-supported attempts over the past few days to delay the Security Council vote.

If the Palestinian request does go ahead on Friday, the United States can refer the request to a debate inside the framework of informal consultations that Security Council members hold behind closed doors – a procedure that could last weeks or months.

Sources in New York claim that Abbas is interested in postponing the Security Council vote, for this would give him time for diplomatic bargaining with the United States.

Again, stay tuned. This whole situation promises to have even more twists and turns in the coming days.